Brazilian dressage reached new heights in São Paulo during the third CDI 3* Grand Prix this season, a final qualifier for the Olympic Games, when Luiza Tavares de Almeida achieved a second 64+% test (64.66%) with pure-bred Lusitano, Samba (Inca). “I was definitely feeling the pressure because I know it’s much harder to achieve 64% in Europe, so I was telling myself ‘I have to do it now, I have to do it!’ I was very nervous during the warm-up, but I knew there was no way out …!”, Luiza reacted.
In contrast, Almeida’s fellow countryman, Rogério “Roger” Clementino, who has already qualified for Hong Kong with Nilo VO, owned by Victor Oliva, was able to relax and enjoy the occasion. He generously admitted it was his “happiest ever defeat” as he celebrated the runners-up position (64.12%) saying, “Although Leandro Silva and Luciano Pereira were unable to make the marks, it’s important that Brazil will be so well represented in Hong Kong now!” Prior to Almeida’s test, the ever-modest Clementino told Almeida simply to “Be calm, be cool and trust God and everything will be okay.” And later he said, “I am so happy for Luiza. The most important thing now is to celebrate the result here and then prepare for the trip to Hong Kong.”
Commenting on a couple of hesitant moments during her test, Luiza Almeida agreed that it was a combination of nerves from both herself and the horse: “He was a little bit tense on the flying changes and piaffe, but otherwise he did good work. I am really happy now, of course, but need to keep on working towards the Olympics.”
Needless to say, reaching the qualification score was an extremely emotional time for Almeida’s parents, Manuel and Thereza, who have fervently supported her dressage ambitions and anxiously awaited the result. In spite of her young age Luiza Almeida did spend half a year at Johan Zager’s stables in Germany to prepare for the Olympic Games. Now in Brazil she proved the trainingtime had been worth every minute.
However the resulting celebration was a little bittersweet for Manuel and Thereza Almeida because Luiza’s older sister Thaiza was also competing and marginally failed to achieve the 64% goal riding another pure-bred Lusitano, Rio Pele (Hostil), an extremely talented maternal grandson of John Whitaker’s former top-class showjumper and world-renowned stallion, Novilheiro. Thaiza will now travel to Europe with her sister, Clementino and their horses later in May in order to compete and continue her quest to qualify for Hong Kong before the June deadline.
Youngest
Alongside Clementino’s own remarkable success story, Luiza Almeida can now look forward to rewriting the history books in Hong Kong becoming the youngest ever equestrian competitor with 16 years of age only. Until now, this distinction has been held by Canada’s Christilot Hanson-Boylen, who competed in Tokyo 1964 at the age of 17, and a Columbian dressage rider (unconfirmed) who competed in Seoul 1988. Tavares’s fellow countryman, Rodrigo Pessoa, currently holds the record as the youngest ever Olympic showjumping competitor at the age of 19.